On her application for a job driving a truck, Amanda Reeves wrote that she could lift seventy-five pounds and carry that weight for fifty-six feet, and that she could lift sixty pounds over her head. She was hired. But in her first three months on the job, she never, in fact, had to unload a truck herself (or carry anything weighing seventy-five pounds). At that point, Reeves discovered she was pregnant. Her doctor wrote a note restricting her to “light work,” and indicated that she should not lift more than twenty pounds. When she showed the note to her employer, her supervisor said they had no “light work” for her to do and sent her home. The company then continued to deny her daily requests for light work, citing its policy that only on-the-job injuries merited light-duty assignments, and eventually fired her.

Is this illegal pregnancy discrimination? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled, in Reeves v. Swift Transportation Company, Inc., that it is not. In so holding, the Sixth Circuit joined two other fairly politically conservative federal circuits, the Fifth and Eleventh, which have reached the same conclusion in similar cases. More politically liberal circuits, such as the Second and Ninth, have yet to weigh in.

This case is an important reminder of the limited rights pregnant women have against discrimination. If workers like Reeves are to be protected, it seems that Congress, state legislatures, or individual cities may have to pass new laws and regulations, or extend existing ones, in order to help them.

Under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, employers must treat pregnant women at least as well as nonpregnant workers with similar ability or inability to work. This comparative right of accommodation means that an employer only has to provide leave for childbirth, for example, if it provides leave for other temporary disabilities. That left a serious gap in protections for pregnant women: most biological mothers require at least a short period of leave for childbirth and recovery. But if they took that necessary leave, and if their employers did not provide leave (paid or unpaid) for disability, then they could legally lose their jobs.